The Soldiers, the Heroes, and the Monsters
by Amaranth Drevin
Summary: Cloud Strife is a soldier prodigy, but when he and his best friend Zack Fair both get accepted into soldier academy things go wrong. Soon Cloud is seeing old friends and survivng impalement, what the hell is happening to Cloud? Cloti, Zaerith, no yaoi, sort of AU, but follows story line This is my first story, but review harshly and let me know what I do wrong, Thanks
1. Prologue

_It was a dark night, the moon was full, but there were no stars in the sky and in a small village atop a water tower sat, a young spiky haired blond named, Cloud. Cloud was going to be a freshman in Nibelheim High next year, but now he had other plans, that was why he was on the water tower, he was waiting for her. It was almost midnight before she showed up. She had long raven black hair, and a face to die for, and even though she was young, she already had a nice figure. Her name was Tifa Lockhart, she was going to be in eighth grade this year, and Cloud has had a crush on her since seventh grade, and she has had a crush on him since sixth grade, but neither of them showed it, they actually tried to hide it as much as possible, so they may still be friends. Though now was no time for a silly crush, now Cloud had to tell Tifa something important. "Tifa, I'm leaving Nibelheim" Tifa just stared at him as if asking him how he planned to do this, then Cloud continued "You can't tell anyone, not even my mother is supposed to know this must be kept a secret." Tifa stared at him then after a few moments, she said "Cloud, I will keep this a secret, even from your family if I have to." Cloud gave her a small smirk, then said thank you. "Tifa I have been given a scholarship to go play for Midgar High's SOLDIER team, and tomorrow I will go to Mt. Nibel, get on a helicopter, and then I will be taken to Midgar. Then my family will get a letter in the mail saying where I am, and why I left, by then they cannot bring me back to Nibelheim, then I will remain in Midgar until my high school career is over." Cloud paused to study Tifa's facial expression, but saw none, __**great**__ he thought__** she is wearing her mask of stone.**__ Then after standing there for a few seconds, trying to read her facial expression, he continued "Then I will hopefully get a scholarship to play at SOLDIER Academy, and to train as a SOLDIER." Then Tifa responded "Cloud, are you sure you want to do this, I mean that is at least four years of your life wasted if you don't make it into SOLDIER. But I support you decision no matter what, if you promise me something." Cloud stared at her inquisitively then asked "What would you like me to promise?" "That if you get really famous, and whenever I'm in a bind you will come and rescue me." Cloud blinked a couple times then replied with "What?" Tifa rolled her eyes "Whenever I'm in trouble my hero will come and rescue me, I at least want to experience that once." Again Cloud replied "What?" Tifa this time a little annoyed said "Come on-! Promise me-!" this time Cloud grinned and said "All right… I promise." Tifa smiled at Cloud and hugged him for the last time for what would be years._


	2. The Begining of the End, of the Begining

_**Three years have passed since the young Cloud Strife said goodbye to his childhood friend, and crush, Tifa Lockhart. Now Cloud was in his junior year, and since being in Midgar, he had made few friends, and his best friend was a boy from Gongaga, in the same program as himself, Zackary Fair. He was a senior, and would be leaving to SOLDIER academy as soon as the season and school year, was over. Though Cloud could not bear to continue his last school year without his best friend Zack, he had already watched Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis, leave Midgar High. There was one chance, the SOLDIER competition, it was a tournament made up of the best SOLDIER players in the world. This is the beginning of the end, of the beginning. **_

Cloud awoke to a shrill beeping noise at six-thirty A.M. He was in the dorm that he and Zack shared. Cloud was very tired, Zack had kept him up all night, banging one of the cheerleaders, again, this was the eighth time in the last eight weeks, one cheerleader for every win, and it was taking its toll on Cloud. So when Cloud was woken up to the sound of his alarm clock at six-thirty, you can imagine how pissed off he was, and not to mention that Zack always set his alarm up on a Saturday just to joke around with him on bye-weeks. This time Zack had crossed the line. When he awoke Cloud loudly shouted "God dammit, Zack, what the Hell!" Cloud smashed his fist into his alarm clock and went back to sleep, he didn't even remember why the alarm was set, it was not Zack who set the alarm, it was Cloud, only he totally spaced it in his blind fury earlier that morning.

A couple hours later Zack awoke when the sun hit his face, he looked over to the cheerleader on his bed, woke her up and kicked her out of the house. Then he went into his bathroom, and walked into the shower, now it was normally when cloud made breakfast after he woke up, but there was no food on the table. This was highly unusual, and Zack knew this, and thought aloud, "The food pixie missed our house. Well damn now I have to make breakfast, but I should probably wake Cloud up first." Zack then went to Clouds room, and woke his ass up. With a start Cloud awoke.

"Zack what the hell, it is a Saturday."

"Cloud I am quite aware of this, but do you forget what today is?"

"Obviously I do or I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you."

"The Wutai battle is today, Cloud. You were supposed to be up so that you would be ready."

Cloud looked at Zack; face palmed, said "Shit" and ran to the shower to get ready for the ceremonies. Zack just chuckled as he left Clouds room, he couldn't wait for the battle today, because he knew that Angeal, Sephiroth, and Genesis would be watching, this is our chance to prove ourselves, to our friends, to become SOLDIER, this was the end of their high school careers, and the beginning of their SOLDIER one. That is if Zack's plan worked, because if it didn't, Cloud would be a senior, while Zack was SOLDIER, and they were both determined not to let that happen. This was the beginning of the end, of the beginning, as Angeal had put it.


End file.
